Charles Edward Speer (1837-1905)
President of the First National Bank at Pittsburgh
He was one of the best and most widely known financiers in Western Pennsylvania and a life long resident of Pittsburgh. His country home was the historic "Friendship Hill" (see images) in Fayette County, originally owned by Albert Gallatin, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson. Gallatin sold the property in 1832 to Albin Mellier whose heirs sold it in 1859 to Speer's father-in-law, U.S. Congressman John Littleton Dawson, through whom it devolved to him. The Speers added the formal dining room and upstairs bedrooms in 1895, linking the 1798 and 1821 additions. In 1910, the widowed Mrs. Speer sold "Friendship Hill" to Josiah Van Kirk Thompson.
